The Responsibility Of Character Naming

     My older sister got a new car for her birthday. Her old car, Diana Rose, was named after Princess Diana. Her new car is blue and named Saphira Danielle, after the dragon in the book Eragon. It was interesting to learn that my oldest sister had named her blue laptop Saphira after the same dragon.
     My oldest sister has had dogs named Senay and Corlath, both I believe from The Hero and the Crown and (its sequel or prequel) The Blue Sword. Her daughter has two cats named Annabeth and Poseidon, after characters in the Percy Jackson series and they also have a dog named Sirius (Black) from Harry Potter and a cat named Rupert, after the actor who plays Ron in the HP movies.
     Even if my family didn't have more pets than children, we probably wouldn't name children after characters from books, but people do. I think authors should be aware of this and keep it in mind.
     As if chosing great, appropriate names for characters isn't enough, now we have to think there's a small chance that fans are going to choose those names for their two- or four-legged loved ones. I don't think any characters in my books or stories are going to be selected as pet or children's names, but I wonder if that would affect my choices in character names.
      This trend works both ways. Authors and writers often choose names of characters - both hero and villain - from people they have known.  So when people select unique/bizarre names for their children, they should remember that they may be inspiring the monikers for characters in the next generation's literature. Which could impact the names of future children...

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